Pips first reactions to Magwitch were different to mine. He feels scared and threatened by Magwitch when he is caught by him on the marshes. ‘O! Don’t cut my throat, sir’, I pleased with terror. ‘Pray don’t do it sir’. He is pleading for his life and says sir at the end of every sentence to try and give Magwitch feeling that he’s superior to himself and that he is humble before him. Pip hopes that this can save his life. This shows that Pip and me react differently in the face of danger. Whilst I stayed calm reading the book, Pip became a scared, frightened little boy. If I was in the face of danger, however, I would to panic. When Pip reacts to Magwitch he doesn’t pick up on Magwitch’s hidden sense of humour, or any other clues that he's not all bad just because he's a criminal.
Later on the story, in chapter 39, we are told that Magwitch is Pips benefactor. For Pip this is a great shock, as he always believed that it was Miss Havisham who gave him the money. He reacts to Magwitch strongly and this is where we see Pip act as if he is a snob. He looks down on Magwitch and cannot believe that his money came from a criminal. He is shocked and cannot bear the fact that this also means he’s not the one miss Havisham intended for Estella. He is shocked and cannot believe that his life is not going to go that way. You can tell that he is shocked by the fact that Magwitch is his only benefactor, because he says, “‘Was there no one else?’ I asked” This shows that the wants he convict to tell him that there was another benefactor, Miss Havisham. Pips first reaction to Magwitch when first walked in the door, was that he didn’t know who he was or why he was in his house. However, once Pip has found out, that if Magwitch is caught the penalty for returning to England is death, then Pips reactions change. Pip starts to feel sorry for Magwitch. He thinks about Magwitch and regrets that he ever looked down on him. “My first care was to close the shutters, so that no light might be seen from without, and then to close and make fast the doors.” From this we learn that Pip’s reactions towards Magwitch have changed, and that he now sympathises with him and wants to help out the man who made him a gentleman.
My reactions to Magwitch change during this scene as well. At first my reactions are led by Pip’s reactions and I wondered why this man had ended up on Pip’s doorstep. However, I did realise that Magwitch was Pip’s benefactor before Pip himself did. I realised it when Magwitch told Pip that he was still grateful for saving him out on the moors, in Kent. Pip is still feeling no sympathy for Magwitch, but I began to see that deep down he was more than just a convict, and I sympathised with him and hoped that Pip would too. My responses towards Magwitch change because I feel sorry for him, and I see that within him that there is more than just the convict he once was. He is now a man who worked hard to help a boy, and make a little boy who once stole him food whilst he was on the run a gentleman. He has a lot of respect for Pip as well. This is shown when he talks to Pip. “’You acted nobly, my boy.’ Said he ‘Noble Pip!’ And I have never forgot it!’” This implies that even thought he made Pip rich he still feels that he is more respectful than he, himself, is. The quote also suggests that all Magwitch’s money goes to Pip, and he hasn’t kept the money for himself. This is another reason why my responses towards Magwitch change.
In Chapter 39 there are many key points that help to change, both Pips and my reactions. When Magwitch turns and looks over his shoulder at Pip, Pip realises that this is his convict as Magwitch had looked back over his shoulder at Pip when he was being taken in the boat after being caught on the moors. Pip can’t believe it either when Magwitch gives him the fixed look. “My attention was so distracted by the singularity of his fixed look at me, that the words died away on my tongue.” However, at this point Pip still wants nothing to do with Magwitch and I on the other hand sympathised with him! Another key point is where Magwitch tells Pip that he is his second father. “‘Looke’e here, Pip, I’m your second father you’re my son – more to me than any son’”. At this point Pip and my reactions are also different, as I feel sorry for Magwitch, thinking that Pip is going to turn him away, and Pip is disgusted as he had always thought that Miss Havisham was his benefactor so that she could have intended him for Estella.
In the last scenes where Magwitch appears both Pip and Herbert want to help him. Pip changes Magwitchs name to Provis so that people wouldn’t recognise a convict’s name. They try to smuggle him out of the country but Magwitch is caught and sentenced to death. However before Magwitch can be executed he dies in prison. This sad ending left me with the thought that Magwitch may have been a convict, but deep down he really cared for Pip as he earned his fortune sheep farming and he risked his life for Pip to come back and tell him. We are left thinking that this character is good and kind and we are all relieved that he dies from natural causes before he is hung. I was left wishing that Magwitch could die peacefully as well as Pip, and I think that the audience all sympathises with Magwitch and hopes that he can be saved from the penalty of Death.
Pips relationship with Magwitch at the end of Magwitch’s life is very different to earlier on in the story. Pip comes early to visit him and waits at the gate so that they don’t waste a minute of visiting time. He also doesn’t desert Magwitch when he is caught, for which Magwitch is very grateful. Magwitch says to Pip “‘Thank’ee, dear boy, thank’ee, God bless you! You’ve never deserted me dear boy”. Pip had been planning on deserting Magwitch earlier in the book, but he didn’t, and now Magwitch loves and trusts him. The quote shows us that Magwitch is grateful towards Pip for never leaving him, even though he is old and dieing, because Magwitch dies happy, Magwitch also dies happy because Pip brings news of Estella. When Magwitch is in the infirmary, Pip tells Magwitch that the daughter Magwitch once loved and lost was alive, strong, healthy and beautiful. He also told Magwitch that he loved her. He said “She is a lady and very beautiful and I love her!” This implies that Pip trusts Magwitch but also that he is using a certain amount of guesswork because nobody ever told him it was Estella. The fact that Pip loves Magwitch’s daughter makes the relationship between Magwitch and Pip even stronger at the end of Magwitchs life.
In Great Expectations’ Magwitch is associated with several ideas. Whilst reading the story you wonder about what makes a gentleman? Magwitch creates what he thinks is a gentleman in Pip, because he has earned plenty of money when he was sheep farming in Australia, and has given Pip a decent education. However, all he has done is made Pip a snob. In many ways Magwitch is similar to Miss Havisham, as they have both given a child (Pip or Estella) money and an education to create a gentleman or a lady, whereas really, they are creating a monster. In the story the real Gentle man is Joe. Joe can not read or write and has never had lots of money, but he is good and kind deep down in his heart. One way that we are shown his kindness is when Pip, Joe and the soldiers catch up with Magwitch on the moors and Magwitch tells them he stole food from Joe’s house. Joe is sympathetic towards Magwitch and still acts out of kindness. “’God knows you’re welcome to it – so far as it was ever mine,’ returned Joe”. This proves that Joe is a generous gentleman because he would rather this convict stole from him than him to starve to death. Another idea linked to Magwitch is what is true and what is false? You begin to think about what things are true and what are false. Money can make a gentleman. True or false? To believe in something the whole of life is good, but what if you then find out its different? What if your ideals change? Does it mean that what you originally believed was false? How do you know what you see now is true? All these questions I asked myself were aroused because of the way Dickens changed Pip’s ideas and made Pip believe the way he was first bought up at the forgery was false. Pip also believed something, that Miss Havisham was his benefactor and that she meant him for Estella. This too was false and Pip believed in something false so what if I am too?
In the plot Magwitch connects to Miss Havisham. They both think that money can make a gentleman/lady and they both believe in whom they are creating and that they are doing a good deed, whereas really they are the monsters. Magwitch also connects to Joe, as Magwitch believes that you are an individual and should care for yourself and those who helped you, whereas Joe believes in helping everyone. They are also connected through Pip. Both Magwitch and Joe both had a chance to bring Pip up. Joe looked after him whilst he was little, and the Magwitch provided the money for him to become a Gentleman.
Dickens used Magwitch to convey many themes and messages to the audience reading the book. The main theme is Magwitch and self-improvement. Magwitch was a criminal but does the fact that he is giving money away to a boy who helped him when he was little make Magwitch a better man? He is not selfish, but then neither was the fact he frightened a small boy into stealing food for him, or was it? Should he have died rather than to steal? Magwitch may however feel that he is in debt to Pip, because he saved his life by stealing the food. If this is the case I don’t think that Magwitch is a better man or has improved as a person just because he is paying off a debt. Magwitch has, however, improved himself as the plot continues because he does risk his life to come back and see Pip, to tell him the truth. This shows that he loves Pip so much that it’s worth risking his life for, even though Magwitch was born a criminal and died a criminal it doesn’t mean that its what he wanted. At the start of the story then I think that Magwitch was a criminal at heart, but by the end he had improved within himself as he admitted he was a criminal. He was also improved within himself because he loved Pip so much he was willing to risk his life to tell Pip the truth. Another reason he may of come back, however was Estella. When Estella was young Mr Jaggers took her from Magwitch. He would have been upset as any parent would have been, but deep down he would of wanted what was best for Estella. He must have told himself how she could have had a better life if she left him to comfort himself. He improved inside himself because when he came back to England, he came back to see Pip, to tell him who his benefactor was, not to hunt down his daughter and seek her back again. Magwitch was an escaped convict at the start of the story when we first met him and our reactions towards him are likely to be biased on the fact that he’s a criminal. However, we don’t look closer unless you want to get closer to the character. Towards the end of the story when I sympathise with Magwitch I started to see that there was more to Magwitch than what met the eye. Deep down he cared and had cared for Pip all the way through he story. At the start when he said that he stole the food to get Pip out of trouble, the money he sent all the way to the end when he risked his life to see Pip again. This shows that Magwitch has been a decent character all the way through the story, the readers just don’t allow with themselves to see it at first. His also shows that a person can improve if only they try hard enough.
